Lando Norris secured first place in the sprint shootout at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after finishing 0.061 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen in his McLaren.
The Briton set a time of 1:10.622 minutes, making up for the disappointment of his worse-than-expected qualifying result on Friday. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez managed third place despite using used tires.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton placed their Mercedes cars fourth and fifth, while Yuki Tsunoda finished an impressive sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc in seventh.
There was a good performance from Daniel Ricciardo in P8, while Carlos Sainz took P9 and Oscar Piastri – driving at Interlagos for the first time in his F1 career – took P10.
1 Lando | 1:10,622 |
2 max | 1:10,683 |
3 Sergio | 1:10,756 |
4 George | 1:10,857 |
5Lewis | 1:10,940 |
The Haas duo Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg will start the sprint from P11 and P12 respectively after narrowly missing out on SQ3. Behind him is Pierre Gasly, who left SQ2 in 13th place.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas finished 14th, while Fernando Alonso, also in 15th, dropped out of second place as Aston Martin mechanics were unable to repair damage to his car following a collision with Esteban Ocon in first place.
MUST SEE: Ocon and Alonso come into contact in bizarre sprint shootout shunt
The incident – which is being investigated by the stewards – led to a dramatic early end to SQ1 when Ocon crashed into the barriers as a result of contact in Turn 3. The Alpine rider was in the elimination zone and therefore finished the session in P16.
After a strong performance on Friday and placing third, Lance Stroll had a tougher session and was eliminated in 17th place. Zhou Guanyu also retired early in 18th place, while the Williams cars of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant will bring up the rear of the sprint grid in 19th and 20th place.
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Sprint Shootout Highlights: 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix
WHEN IT HAPPENED
SQ1 – Sainz leads as Ocon-Alonso incident raises alarm bells
After an eventful opening day at Interlagos on Friday, which saw Verstappen take pole position for Sunday’s race as bad weather ended qualifying early, drivers returned to action on Saturday for the final sprint shootout of 2023.
Luckily for those who aren’t a fan of rain, the 12-minute SQ1 session started in warm and dry conditions. However, there was a risk that the route would lose its footing overnight. When the green light came on, the start was quiet, with no one moving at first before several riders set off on the obligatory medium tyre.
Yesterday’s poleman Verstappen was the first to enter the circuit as half of the field began to do a few laps while the remaining ten stayed in the pits, perhaps because they wanted to avoid using too many tires. The world champion set the pace at the start with 1:11.888 minutes, three tenths ahead of his teammate Perez.
With eight minutes to go, all drivers had left the pits while the times continued to run, with Sainz moving to the top of the timesheets. While part of the field decided to make a pit stop, the Red Bull duo stayed outside on the race track. Elsewhere, as in qualifying on Friday, Piastri suffered a slight wobble but managed to avoid a slip.
There were problems for Magnussen – who had finished in fifth place – as the Haas was forced to pit because something got stuck on the front of his car, potentially putting him at risk of falling down the rankings over time being pushed behind.
Albon was among those eliminated in SQ1
After McLaren suffered bad luck in qualifying on Friday, there seemed to be a chance that history could repeat itself, with Piastri in P14 as the session entered its final minutes. However, the shootout was then canceled because the yellow flags were initially waved for Ocon, who had fallen, but luckily recovered before the red flags were shown.
Meanwhile, Alonso suffered what appeared to be a puncture and had to limp back to the pits. Replays showed that there had been contact in Turn 3 between the Alpine – which appeared to be slightly out of shape on a fast lap over the curbs – and the slower-moving Aston Martin, prompting an angry reaction from Ocon Team radio led.
The incident was noted by the stewards and it was soon confirmed that SQ1 would not resume, meaning drivers in the elimination zone would not get another chance to improve their lap times.
Sainz ended the session at the top ahead of Norris and Hamilton, and there were further problems for Ocon as he exited the shootout in P16.
While Alonso progressed, his teammate Stroll was less lucky and ended up in P17. Zhou’s Alfa Romeo and the Williams duo Albon – who had improved when the red flags appeared – and Sargeant also retired early.
Knocked out: Ocon, Stroll, Zhou, Albon, Sargeant
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Sprint shootout at the Sao Paulo GP 2023: Ocon crashes out of SQ1 contact with Alonso
SQ2 – Norris sets the pace in the delayed session
There was a delay in the launch of SQ2 as work was carried out to repair the barriers following Ocon’s serious accident. This also gave Aston Martin the opportunity to try and repair Alonso’s car, as the Spaniard had finished SQ1 in P11.
The shootout finally resumed at 11:40 a.m. local time, with SQ2 already 10 minutes into the clock. As in SQ1, Verstappen decided to go out first and placed himself at the front of the pit lane while the drivers waited for the green light. Perez followed him and both Red Bulls set off with fresh medium tires.
Although Aston Martin mechanics were working on his car, it appeared Alonso would not be attending the session as the two-time world champion was already on hand to speak to the media. Meanwhile, the majority of the remaining drivers completed their first laps and Verstappen once again set the pace with a time of 1m 11.449s.
Haas showed an impressive performance at the start: Hülkenberg and Magnussen took fifth and seventh place and pushed the Mercedes duo into ninth and tenth place. There was a pause in the action before the field – many of whom were now running used medium tires – returned to the track for the final minutes of SQ2.
Things looked tight in the final moments, but AlphaTauri made a dramatic leap out of the elimination zone, with Ricciardo moving up to second and Tsunoda reaching seventh. The Japanese rider was pushed back while others were ahead of him – including Norris, who topped the timesheets – but Tsunoda still managed to hold on to P10.
This left Magnussen and Hülkenberg out of the race in P11 and P12 respectively, followed by Gasly in 13th and Bottas in 14th. Alonso did not return to action and ended up 15th on the sprint grid.
Retired: Magnussen, Hülkenberg, Gasly, Bottas, Alonso
The Haas cars narrowly missed out on making it into SQ3
SQ3 – P1 for Norris, who leaves Red Bull behind
After an eventful session so far, the eight-minute Top 10 Shootout began, but this time there was no great rush to get started with only a single round on the schedule. Some drivers – notably Perez, Sainz and Piastri – did not have a new set of soft tires for the session, as they had all been used in Friday’s qualifying.
Finally there was movement as the clock counted down to four minutes. Verstappen wanted to get going again and managed a few overtaking maneuvers on the way out of the pits, which gave him some fresh air on the track.
Before him, Piastri was the first to complete a lap on the board with a time of 1:11.189 minutes. This didn’t keep him in P1 for long as Norris beat that lap with a time of 1m10.622s while Verstappen finished in second place. Tsunoda placed impressively in third place before being pushed to the ground by Perez.
Although more laps were pending, Norris retained the sprint pole over Verstappen by six hundredths of a second. Perez was third, Russell was fourth and Hamilton was fifth.
The fast Tsunoda starts from P6 in the sprint grid, with Leclerc behind in seventh and Ricciardo in P8. Sainz and Piastri completed the top 10.
After the meeting it was confirmed that other drivers alongside Alonso and Ocon had also been called to the stewards – Norris and Tsunoda were both called for alleged failure to follow the race director’s instructions.
Norris took first place at the Sao Paulo Sprint Shootout
Key quote
“A great day, but honestly it felt like one of the worst laps I’ve ever done, so it’s a surprise,” said Norris. “My first pole in a long time, so I’m happy. The pace was good all weekend, the car was strong. It’s a difficult question, the Bulls are always fast, Max is very fast. I will do my best.”
What’s next
The riders will now take a break before lining up for the 100 kilometer sprint at 3:30 p.m. local time. Go to RACING HUB to find out how you can catch the action.